The Sharks had their first real contact session against the Sharks XV yesterday and while there was some encouraging play delivered by both sides, it seems that the keen youngsters might have tried just a little too hard to upstage their Super Rugby teammates.

Now we all know that games like this are about more than the scoreline, but Sean Everitt’s side will take comfort from the fact that they scored three tries to the two managed by John Plumtree’s charges. More concerning, though, is a number of injury worries picked up by players in the Super Rugby squad – which may well leave Plum scratching his head a little heading into next week’s Tri-Series warm up games.

A number of Sharks sat out the session as a result of existing niggles – worryingly, Willem Alberts was one of them, meaning a run at blindside flank for Steven Sykes. Neither of JP Pietersen or Odwa Ndungane played a part, so when Lwazi Mvovo and Zuks Vulindlu went down, with knocks to the knee and hamstring respectively, Charl McLeod ended up having to run on the wing. Sykes himself is apparently another injury concern and it sounds as though a number of the above-mentioned players could end up sitting out the trip to Cape Town, with the likes of Mark Richards and Anton Bresler lined up to replace them.

Encouragingly, John Smit played his first 20 minutes of rugby in five months and according to his report on Twitter, it went well. A number of players in the Sharks XV put their hands up in a big way, most notably loose forward Dan Oijambo and halfbacks Cobus Reinach and Fred Zeilinga.

Ok Rob explain knock – the may not make it to CT as a precaution or because they really injured. In other words should we be worrying? I don’t think I will survive another start to SR like last year!:(

@robdylan (Comment 8) : Vulindlu was hobbling around the gym yesterday afternoon but im guessing its just a minor strain otherwise he wouldnt be in the gym!
Nothing wrong with a bit of full out contact as there will be no taking it easy in these Tri-Series games or the 1st Super rugby game. Alberts must have a niggle cos he wouldnt have sat out the whole game and miss valuable contact.

Comment 11, posted at 27.01.11 08:01:04 by SheldonK

@beet (Comment 9) : I now have the correct starting lineup, if you’re interested